I opened my eyes and immediately realized two things.
First, I felt incredible. The physical toll of the Amethyst Miracle was completely gone. In fact, it felt like my internal reserves had permanently expanded some more. Then, I noticed the ceiling above me, it wasn't the dingy plaster of the cram school dorm or some random inn; it was vaulted, gilded, and screamed of high-class True Cross funding.
Second, I was ravenously hungry. I had burned millions of calories playing God, and my stomach was threatening to start digesting my own ribs.
I tried to sit up and stretch, only to find that I couldn't move my arms or my legs.
I looked down, and I was completely encased in a heavy-duty, reinforced canvas straitjacket. Thick, glowing, industrial leather straps bound my arms across my chest, and my legs were bolted together. But it wasn't just the fabric—the entire jacket was glowing. Thousands of tiny, intricate crimson seals were stamped into the canvas, humming with the most ancient, concentrated suppression magic the True Cross Order possessed.
They got me a little jacket, how cute, I thought, testing the tension. I could shatter the entire thing just by flexing my aura, but the canvas is actually pretty soft. So, I might as well see where this goes.
Suddenly, my vision shifted. And a premonition hit me, much longer and clearer than the ones I had before.
FLASH.
In the first one, I saw myself in the center of a massive, overcrowded courtroom, surrounded by the Grigori and other Exorcists, with Mephisto and Shura standing nearby.
FLASH.
Then in the second one, I found myself standing inside the metallic, sterile interior of a massive airship. Lucifer was in front of me, glowing with unnatural light, surrounded by his heavily armed Illuminati soldiers.
FLASH.
Finally, the scenery shifted again, and Shura walked out of a steaming pool area, wearing absolutely nothing but a tiny white towel.
The visions faded.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on with that last one? I thought, my priorities immediately shifting.
"Ah! Sleeping Beauty awakens!"
A cloud of pink smoke erupted near the foot of the bed. Mephisto materialized, wearing a ridiculously extravagant white and gold suit, complete with a matching top hat. But more importantly, floating behind him were three silver trays piled high with a five-star breakfast: Wagyu steak, stacks of pancakes, eggs, and pastries.
"Aye, lemme get some of that."
Mephisto chuckled, snapping his fingers. A fork animated itself, hovering over to begin feeding me bites of steak since my arms were bound. I chewed ravenously as the King of Time began his briefing.
"You have been a very busy boy," Mephisto hummed, pouring himself a cup of tea. "The entirety of Dream Town Inari has been purified. The residents, the experiments, even the ambient demonic miasma in the air. Over a million people were afflicted by Gedoin's little food-drugging operation. The True Cross Order would have spent years trying to cure them all. You did it in ten seconds."
I swallowed a massive bite of pancake. "They're welcome. Tell'em to leave a tip on the nightstand next time."
"Unfortunately, the Grigori aren't in a tipping mood," Mephisto smirked, his eyes flashing with amusement. "They're in a state of absolute, unadulterated panic. They could somewhat understand you when you were just a weapon of destructive blue fire. But manifesting a three-colored halo? Making ancient familiars bow? Performing a mass-healing miracle?"
Mephisto leaned in close, his grin widening.
"You aren't just a weapon anymore. To them, you're becoming something even more dangerous: a Messiah. Factions within the Order are already fracturing. Half of the Vatican is terrified and wants you permanently sealed in the deepest trench they can find. The other half—specifically those aligned with Shemihaza, the Emperor of Creation—saw that Amethyst flames and believed you might actually be the savior of Assiah. They put you in those bindings not just to suppress you, but because they are terrified of not knowing whose side you're actually on."
"A Savior?! A cult?! How hilarious!" I threw my head back and let out a loud, genuine bark of laughter.
And who the fuck is Shemihaza? I thought. Must be someone important to get a title like Emperor of Creation. Better file it away for later.
Then I gestured my head at the interior.
"And where exactly are we?" I questioned.
"We are currently in a high-security Vatican annex suite, which connects directly to the Grigori's grand courtroom," he replied. "The Vatican also sent their highest-level executioners to transport you to this emergency tribunal. In fact, they're waiting right outside that door, anxious as can be and absolutely terrified of you."
Right on cue, the heavy oak doors to my suite clicked open. But it wasn't the executioners who walked in; it was the Exwires, led by Shura.
She strolled in, looking completely refreshed. The severe, bleeding wound she had taken to the abdomen was completely gone, leaving her skin unblemished. She walked right up to the bed and casually slapped the back of my head.
"Ow," I deadpanned, even though the blow didn't hurt.
"You couldn't have performed a normal healing technique, could you?" she scoffed, hiding her awe behind her usual sarcasm. "You just had to put on a literal light show and give everyone collective heart attacks, huh?"
"You know I don't do half-measures," I said, leaning forward to take a bite of a dorayaki from the hovering fork.
Behind her, Yukio stood silently. He was intensely quiet, his analytical eyes scanning the glowing seals on my jacket. I sensed gratefulness for what I did coming from him, but I could also sense the deep, heavy insecurity radiating off him. The sheer, unfathomable gap in our power had finally crystallized in his mind.
Bon and Konekomaru stepped forward next.
Bon looked at the floor, struggling visibly with his pride for a few seconds before letting out a long breath. He looked up, his expression completely genuine. "Okumura... thank you. For listening to us. For sparing Renzo."
Beside him, Konekomaru dropped into a deep, trembling, but resolute bow. "Thank you," the timid monk echoed. "You showed mercy when you didn't have to. We won't forget it."
It's a good thing I didn't tell them that I was just firing a tracking beacon, I thought. "Don't mention it."
Then, Shiemi stepped up to the side of the bed. She wasn't awestruck or intimidated like the others. She just looked at me with pure, unadulterated empathy.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly, her green eyes filled with concern. "You burned yourself so badly to save everyone..."
"It takes a lot more than a little sunburn to put me down. I'm perfectly fine," I reassured her.
Finally, Izumo stepped out from the back of the group.
She looked exhausted, the weight of her mother's death still clinging to her, but her usual abrasive, tsundere attitude was completely gone. She was calm. She stopped at the foot of the bed and offered me a very simple, very genuine bow. She didn't say a word, but the message was clear. She was thanking me for easing Tamamo's passing, and for giving her the space to exact her own revenge.
I nodded and I asked a question with my usual drawl tone. "So, did puppet boy give you the key yet?"
"What?" Izumo blinked, her calm expression breaking into sheer confusion. "What key?"
I focused my energy. A small, pearl-white sphere of warmth materialized out of thin air, floating gently into her hands.
"Get the key from him, and when you get it, project your happiest memories into this," I told her cryptically. "It'll help a lot."
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Two massive, heavily armored Vatican executioners stepped into the room. I could literally hear their heartbeats spiking with adrenaline as they looked at me. They were dragging a heavy-duty, reinforced steel appliance dolly.
"It is time, Spawn of Satan," one of the executioners stated, his voice tight. "The Grigori summons you."
I stared at the dolly. Then I looked at Mephisto.
Ain't no way, I thought, a grin nearly stretching on my slightly open mouth.
"You're putting me on a hand truck?" I asked, my voice flat. "Like a refrigerator?"
"You simply cannot walk in those bindings," Mephisto said, highly amused. "This is the only way to transport you."
Ain't this about a bitch.
The executioners hesitantly grabbed my shoulders, terrified I was going to combust, and strapped me upright onto the dolly.
"I guess I'll be seeing y'all," I said to the group, looking like a piece of faulty office equipment.
With that, the executioners tilted me back and wheeled my dolly out the door, the wheels squeaking slightly on the marble floor as they rolled me towards the most powerful people in the world.
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
The squeaking of the dolly's rubber wheels echoed loudly as the heavy oak doors to the grand courtroom swung open.
The room was massive and bathed in the lights of multiple chandeliers. It was similar to the first courtroom I first met them in, but this one was not only much bigger, but it was also absolutely overcrowded. Dozens of high-ranking Exorcists, council members, and Vatican officials filled the stadium-style seating, murmuring in hushed, nervous tones as I was wheeled into the center of the floor.
I feel like Hannibal Lecter in this bitch, I thought.
High above everyone else, seated behind a massive, elevated podium, were the Grigori. They looked down at me from behind their veils, practically oozing self-importance.
I glanced around the room as the executioners locked the dolly in place and scurried away. In the corner of my eye I saw Arthur Auguste Angel standing near the front row of one of the pews. A smug, arrogant smirk plastered on his face as his hand rested on Caliburn's hilt. He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying seeing me strapped up. Off to my right side, Mephisto stood with his umbrella, hiding a massive grin. And in the very back, leaning against a marble pillar, I could sense Shura popping a bubblegum bubble and shaking her head, already bracing herself for the sheer stupidity she knew was about to happen.
The Grigori felt incredibly smug, I didn't need to sense it to know. They were completely convinced that because I wasn't actively burning the room down, their glowing seals were actually suppressing my divinity.
The murmuring in the room died down as a Grigori member leaned forward. Sitting silently beside him was a figure draped in crystalline robes—the representative of Shemihaza. Instead of thanking me for saving an entire town, the speaker addressed me with a strict, demanding tone, laced with underlying paranoia.
"Rin Okumura, Spawn of Satan. You have demonstrated an unstable and terrifying level of power," he boomed, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "Yet, the miracle you performed in Inari... it borders on the divine. Some among this council view you as a potential savior of Assiah. But your temperament is chaotic. We placed you in these bindings because we do not know where your loyalties lie. Are you a protector of humanity, or a harbinger of its destruction?"
The councilman pointed a stiff finger down at me.
"Prove your allegiance and submit yourself to the direct command of the Vatican. Under that command you will be assigned to track down the Illuminati, and eradicate Lucifer. Do you understand your orders?"
The entire courtroom held its breath, waiting for my submission.
My expression was unreadable as I just stared up at them for a second.
And then, I started to laugh.
It wasn't a dark, villainous chuckle. It was a loud, genuine laugh—the kind of laugh that escapes you when you find something so unbelievably ridiculous you physically cannot stop yourself.
"Nah, I ain't doing all that," I responded casually, my laughter dying down into an amused smirk.
The entire courtroom went dead silent. You could have heard a pin drop.
"I'll get rid of him when I feel like it, not when you weaklings want me to," I said, looking around the room before locking my eyes back on the podium. "And was this really your plan? Put me in seals and demand that I save you?"
I let out another brief laugh.
"I thought this was supposed to be the highest authority of the human world. It's embarrassing how pathetic you all are."
Arthur's smug smirk instantly vanished, replaced by a scowl of pure rage. The Grigori bristled in indignation. And a chorus of chatter rang out from the crowd.
"Insolence!" one of the council members shouted from the stands. "He mocks us! Double the seals!"
"Come down here and double it then pussy!" I responded to them.
"He's too dangerous to be left alive! Prepare him for immediate execution!" another official barked, slamming his fist against the railing.
"I'm waiting on you hoe! Come get fried!" I barked back.
"Restrain him! Where is the Paladin?!" a third voice shrieked in panic.
"Bring his ass down here too, I'll show y'all what real power looks—"
ZING!
I was about to continue roasting them, but suddenly, a sharp, distinct pulse echoed in my mind.
I stopped abruptly, the sneer completely dropping from my face. My eyes widened slightly, my gaze locking onto something far beyond the courtroom walls. My sudden, eerie silence—and the drastic shift from aggressive trash-talking to absolute, dead-eyed focus—made the screaming crowd falter. The calls for execution died down into uneasy, confused murmurs as they nervously exchanged glances, unsure of what had just happened.
The specialized tracking mark I had branded into Gedoin had just come to a halt. The coordinates locked into my internal radar. He was currently aboard some airship, hovering several miles above the earth.
Well, well, well. Would you look at that, I thought, completely ignoring the whispering council members around me.
"Excuse me for a moment," I told the occupants of the room, my voice suddenly dropping its amused tone.
I instantly tapped into my power.
I didn't bother breaking the straitjacket yet. I just let my divinity flare.
The thousands of "ancient, unbreakable" crimson seals on my canvas jacket began to sizzle and violently hiss, completely short-circuiting as they tried and failed to suppress my power. My hair erupted into brilliant, blinding blue-white fire. A second later, the massive, three-colored halo—Sapphire, Pearl-White, and Amethyst—manifested above my head, illuminating the entire courtroom in a terrifying, divine light.
"W-What is that?!" an Exorcist screamed, stumbling backwards over his own feet.
"The seals are doing nothing!" Arthur yelled, drawing Caliburn in a panic as the sheer pressure of my aura drove several weaker Exorcists to their knees.
I didn't pay any attention to their terror. I closed my eyes and the halo spun rapidly, leaving my physical body strapped to the dolly, and projected my consciousness straight up into the atmosphere, riding the connection of the mark directly to my target.
FOOM.
Aboard the airship, the mark flared to life with blinding heat. Gedoin shrieked in fresh agony as a geyser of blue-white fire erupted directly from his flesh.
The flames spiraled upward, knitting together until my body was reformed in an ethereal, semi-translucent form. I stood in the center of the ship's command deck, stepping casually off Gedoin's groveling body. Dozens of heavily armed Illuminati soldiers froze, their weapons clattering in their hands as they stared at my sudden, fiery manifestation.
When my vision stabilized, I saw Renzo standing right next to me. He just so happened to be standing next to Gedoin, who was clutching his neck in pain on the ground—from where the mark was placed. And sitting across from them on a throne, glowing with his usual unnaturally blinding light, was the Commander-in-Chief of the Illuminati himself, Lucifer, with his subordinate, Homare, standing faithfully right beside his throne.
I looked around the sterile, brightly lit command deck, while getting a feel of my ethereal arms. I radiated a pressure so intense that most of the lower-level soldiers collapsed instantly.
"Nice ship," I said casually, breaking the heavy silence. "A little too much chrome for my taste, but I guess the whole blinding hospital aesthetic is kind of your thing, huh, Lightbulb?"
Lucifer didn't bristle at the insult. He simply sat perfectly still on his throne. I noticed that the throne was actually some sort of life-support machine, but it was completely off.
Hmm, he must have been in Inari to get more of that synthesized blood, I mused. He feels like a whole nother being compared to when I last saw him at the festival.
A faint, unnatural warmth radiated from Lucifer's pale skin as he took a deep, effortless breath. His eyes crinkled into a serene, almost gentle smile.
"Rin Okumura," he greeted, his voice incredibly soft but carrying a strange, resonant weight. "What an unexpected... and radiant surprise. Your light is even more beautiful in person. And as you can see, it has done wonders for my constitution."
This fucking guy. I thought, rolling my eyes. And he ain't addressing me as brother today, huh?
"You little shit, you know damn well that you just so happen to stumble upon an accidental blessing. You probably didn't even know it was gonna completely heal your vessel, let alone expand the limits of the power you could output."
"Perhaps it was accidental," Lucifer conceded smoothly, his smile never wavering. "But the universe naturally gravitates toward perfection. It was only a matter of time before destiny provided the means to sustain its rightful king."
"Wow," I deadpanned. "You really practice being this pretentious in the mirror, huh?"
"You dare speak to the Commander-in-Chief with such insolence?!" someone shouted.
I didn't even turn my head.
One of the heavily armed Illuminati guards standing to my right had stepped out of formation, his face twisted in fanatical rage. He raised a high-tech energy rifle, aiming it directly at my flaming head. "Kneel before the King of Light, you True Cross scum! Or else I'll—"
I simply shifted my eyes towards them.
FHOOM.
A pillar of fire instantly erupted from the metal floor beneath the guard's feet. He didn't even have time to scream. In less than a fraction of a second, the guard, his armor, and his weapon were completely vaporized into a pile of fine, drifting ash.
The command deck fell into absolute, terrified silence. The other soldiers rigidly locked their knees, sweating profusely and refusing to even breathe too loudly.
"Quite the rowdy one, huh? Anyways," I continued, turning my attention back to Lucifer as if nothing had happened. "I just thought I'd drop by and let you know what's going on down at the Vatican. I'm currently hanging out with the Grigori, and they're yapping in my ear because you were healed and I purified your little science project in Inari."
"Ah, yes. Inari," Lucifer hummed smoothly, completely unfazed by the pile of ash that used to be his soldier. He glanced down at the pathetic, groveling form of Gedoin. "Mr. Gedoin was just attempting to explain to me why he directly disobeyed my orders and jeopardized that facility by trying to kill you."
"What's there to explain? He disobeyed and failed," I said bluntly. "Wouldn't let one of my subordinates disrespect me like that. I'd run a way tighter ship, but hey not everyone's me."
At my words, Lucifer's serene smile faded by a fraction. He shifted his glowing eyes downward, staring at Gedoin with an icy, apathetic coldness that made the temperature in the room plummet. Gedoin let out a pathetic squeal, pressing his face so hard into the metal floor I thought he might dent it, his massive body violently trembling in pure fear.
"But here's the funny part," I continued, a smirk gracing my face. "The geezers are trying to claim me like I'm their personal attack dog or something. They keep going on and on about how they want me to wipe you out."
"Have they now?" Lucifer responded, mildly amused by the thought. "How delightfully ambitious of them. And yet, here you are, visiting my domain instead of fulfilling their little crusade."
"That's because they keep disrespecting me, so I'm considering turning your little double-sided holy war into a three-way brawl," I said, the temperature in the room growing even heavier.
Renzo, standing a few feet away, let out a nervous, strained chuckle, realizing I was dead serious. Homare's eyes narrowed behind her glasses, a single bead of cold sweat rolling down her cheek. She clearly remembered the suffocating weight of my pressure from our first meeting, and she didn't dare to move carelessly.
Lucifer leaned forward slightly, resting his chin on his hand. His glowing eyes examined my fiery projection with genuine curiosity.
"A fascinating situation," Lucifer murmured. "But it begs the question. If you possess the power to cleanse an entire town in an instant, and manifest an astral projection directly onto my stealthship... why not simply strike me down now? Why bring the Order's dysfunction to my attention? Why allow me to build my army at all?"
I smirked, my blue-white flames flickering brightly.
"Because it wouldn't be any fun," I answered honestly.
For a fraction of a second, Lucifer's serene mask actually slipped. His glowing eyes widened slightly in rare, genuine shock as he processed the sheer, irrational absurdity of my statement.
A collective gasp rippled through the soldiers. Homare took a half-step forward, gritting her teeth at the absolute blasphemy of my words. Renzo's usual lazy smile completely twitched into a grimace, his eyes screaming, He can't be serious.
"Killing you right now? Crushing your little cult before it even gets off the ground? It'd just be too easy," I continued, taking careful steps to feel out the ethereal body. "Truth be told, If you went through all this trouble just to get a functioning body, I wouldn't care as much cause you haven't done anything to me that I know of. But, you plan on destroying all of humanity and reviving someone I don't want revived, so we gotta be enemies by default."
I stopped and turned towards his direction.
"But that's only part of the reason why I'm not stopping you," I said, making Lucifer's eyebrow raise slightly. "There are very few things in this world that can even match up to my power, but you… you just so happen to land in the 1% and I'm curious to see how you'd fare against me at full power without any restrictions."
"He's completely lost his mind..." Renzo muttered under his breath, wiping sweat from his forehead. The Illuminati soldiers stared at me like I was a monster far worse than Satan himself. The sheer, battle-junkie madness of letting the King of Light reach his absolute peak just for a good fight was completely incomprehensible to them.
I pointed a flaming finger right at the King of Light.
"So I propose a winner-takes-all game," I declared, my voice dripping with absolute arrogance. "Build whatever army you want. Summon or create the strongest demons you can cook up and throw them my way. I'll crush every single one of them while you sit back and watch. In fact, take as long as you possibly can to get your vessel to its absolute peak. I want you at your best when I finally put you in the ground. Because in the end, it won't matter. The results aren't gonna change."
Lucifer stared at me for a long moment, the initial shock fully melting away. Then, a genuine, delighted smile spread across his pale face.
"Your arrogance is as blinding as your flames," Lucifer praised softly. "Very well. I accept your challenge. We shall see whose light is absolute."
Lucifer slowly turned his gaze back down to Gedoin, who was still clutching his burned neck, sobbing and begging for mercy.
"However," Lucifer sighed, his tone turning sorrowful. "I cannot tolerate disobedience. Mr. Gedoin, you ignored my warnings. And you brought an avatar of destruction directly into my sanctum."
"No! Lord Lucifer, please! I only meant to please you! I never intended to cross you! I am—!"
Lucifer raised a single, glowing finger.
A beam of pure, absolute light shot from his fingertip and enveloped Gedoin's body. The mad scientist was completely disintegrated, leaving nothing behind but his hairpiece.
What the fuck, it was a wig?!
With Gedoin's death, the mark I had used as an anchor was instantly destroyed.
"Until we meet on the battlefield, Rin Okumura," Lucifer's voice echoed as my ethereal body began to violently destabilize.
ZING!
My consciousness was violently yanked back down to earth, rocketing through the atmosphere.
I snapped my eyes open. I was back in the grand courtroom, my physical body still strapped upright on the appliance dolly. The entire room of Grigori and Exorcists were exactly where I left them, staring at me in sheer terror as my three-colored halo burned brightly above my head.
I let out a slow, heavy breath.
Alright, I thought, my glowing eyes narrowing with absolute disdain as I looked up at the high council. Time to wrap this shit up.
The entire courtroom was frozen in a tableau of absolute panic. The high-ranking Exorcists who hadn't already dropped to their knees were gripping the pews, their faces pale under the terrifying, holy light of my three-colored halo.
Up on their elevated podium, the Grigori were visibly trembling.
"W-What did you do?!" one of the veiled councilmen demanded, his voice cracking, completely devoid of the booming authority he had used just moments ago. "Where did your mind go?!"
"I was just catching up with a war buddy of mine," I replied flatly.
I didn't struggle against the heavy-duty canvas or the industrial leather straps binding me to the dolly. I just let the ambient heat of my halo brush against my shoulders.
FWOOSH.
The "unbreakable", reinforced straitjacket didn't even catch fire; it simply ceased to exist, instantly incinerated into a few drifting flakes of white ash. The heavy steel bolts locking my legs to the dolly melted into glowing orange slag that dripped harmlessly onto the marble floor.
I stepped off the appliance dolly, rolling my shoulders and casually dusting off my shirt.
Angel gripped Caliburn with both hands, his knuckles turning white, but his feet were firmly planted. His instincts as a Paladin were screaming at him that if he took a single step towards me, he'd die.
The ambient temperature in the massive room suddenly plummeted. A cold, suffocating pressure—born not of rage, but of absolute, god-like apathy—crashed down on the courtroom. The sheer density of it made the air feel like thick water. Exorcists gasped, clutching their chests as they struggled to draw breath.
I looked up at the high council, my glowing eyes narrowing with pure disdain.
"Let's get one thing straight," I stated, my voice cold, flat, and echoing perfectly in the dead silent room. "You didn't capture me, and you most certainly didn't restrain me. I allowed you to put that jacket on me because I wanted to see if you had anything interesting to say."
I paused, letting my gaze sweep over the trembling elders.
"You don't. You want to know what side of humanity I'm on?" I chuckled briefly. "I'm on the only one that matters, my own."
I took a slow, deliberate step forward. The Vatican guards flanking the podium instinctively flinched backwards.
"I am not your savior," I continued, my voice slicing through their remaining pride. "I am not your weapon, and I am certainly not your soldier. You need me to relieve you of this problem, not the other way around. So, if you ever try to command me to prove my allegiance like a dog again, I won't just ignore the disrespect you've laid down. I'll come up with a quick solution to fix it."
The Amethyst, Pearl-White, and Sapphire halo above my head spun slightly, casting long, divine shadows across the stained-glass windows.
"Right now, it's the True Cross Order versus the Illuminati. But if you continue with this disrespect, I'll be more than happy to make it a three-way war; you versus Lucifer... versus Me."
I let the threat sink deep into their bones. I let them visualize exactly what that would mean—an enemy they couldn't seal, couldn't cut, and couldn't command.
"And I promise you," I added, my aura flexing violently outward for a single, terrifying second, sending a shockwave that cracked the marble pillars. "If you think that I won't wipe both of your organizations off the map with the quickest flick of my wrist, then you're in for a rude awakening."
No one spoke, and no one moved. The Grigori were completely paralyzed, the reality of their utter helplessness finally shattering their centuries of built-up arrogance.
I let the pressure hold for one more second before pulling it all back. The halo vanished. The flames in my hair died down. The suffocating weight vanished from the air, leaving the Exorcists gasping and coughing.
I turned my back on the highest authority in the human world and walked straight down the center aisle. The ranks of heavily armed, elite Vatican guards parted like the Red Sea, practically pressing themselves against the walls to avoid being anywhere near me. They were too terrified to even breathe, let alone try to stop me.
As I passed Mephisto and Shura, I didn't even break my stride.
"Take me back to the dorms," I said casually. "I'm in the mood for pizza."
Shura let out a sharp bark of laughter, a massive smirk breaking across her face as she pushed off the marble pillar. "You almost gave those geezers a synchronized stroke. And make sure mine has extra meat."
Mephisto simply tipped his extravagant hat, his eyes dancing with absolute, unadulterated glee at the geopolitical disaster I had just caused. "A magnificent performance! I shall have the dorm kitchens stocked with the finest Neapolitan ingredients immediately."
I didn't answer him right away. In fact, my expression shifted into a deep, irritated scowl.
And It had absolutely nothing to do with the Grigori—they were a joke. My disappointment stemmed from a much more pressing, unresolved issue. I stopped walking and stared directly at Shura. I looked her up and down, and my scowl deepened.
Where's the towel? I thought, my annoyance peaking. The vision clearly showed her in a towel. So, when's it happening?
Shura raised an eyebrow, shifting her weight under my intense, deadpan stare.
"What the hell are you looking at?" she asked, crossing her arms over her heavy chest defensively.
"Nothing," I sighed heavily, shaking my head as I pushed the grand doors open. "Just... false advertising."
The heavy oak doors swung shut behind us, leaving the True Cross Order to sit in the ruins of their shattered egos.